


stumbling

by orphan_account



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 09:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7042180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>gajeel doesn't expect to fall in love</p>
            </blockquote>





	stumbling

**Author's Note:**

> sort of spoilers for chapter 487 i guess

He doesn’t expect to fall in love.

If he’s honest with himself, he doesn’t think the whole _love_ thing is really for him. He’s not the type of person you associate with ‘happily ever afters’ and shared glances and lingering touches and that feeling of _warmth_ he hears so many people gushing about and everything  _else_ that comes with being in love. And yet—

Theirs isn’t a whirlwind romance like the ones she reads about in those trashy novels she keeps tucked away in dark corners at the guild, naively thinking nobody knows about her guilty pleasure. It’s _different_.

He wishes he could say _when_ it happened. Wishes he could pluck out a moment in time to point to and resolutely say ‘ _yes_ , _that was the moment I fell for her_ ’, but he can’t.

He can’t pinpoint the moment - the moment he  _falls_ and falls hard - but he thinks there are plenty of moments where it _could_ have happened.

 

He remembers being in the guild watching her work her magic during that _mess_ with Laxus and he thinks it _might_ have happened then. He remembers the feeling of _admiration_ that washed over him as he watched her scan the aged books in front of her, mumbling under her breath as she worked overtime to free them from the runes.

Or—

He remembers the S-Class trials and thinks  _maybe_ it happened then. He remembers her face, the way her eyes light up, the way her lips stretch into a stunned smile when Makarov calls her name. Remembers stalking across the guild and offering his help, not because he thinks she needs it - _never_ that, he’s seen first hand what she can do, knows just how capable she is - but because he wants to _watch_. Wants to watch her take Fairy Tail by storm and show the world just how formidable he knows she is.

Or maybe—

He remembers _during_ the trials. Maybe it happens then. He remembers her sly little laugh when she rewrites the runes and leaves the rest of their guildmates stranded on the boat. Remembers the way it makes _him_ laugh to know she has this side to her. He remembers the bad too. Remembers the sinking feeling in his stomach when he hears her _scream._ Maybe it _does_ happen then.

But what about—

He remembers the Games. Remembers hearing her _cry_ out for him, begging him to be okay. Remembers the way it makes him feel to know there’s someone cheering for him. So,  _then_  maybe?

Or—

He remembers Belno dying. Remembers the familiar and calming presence by his side. But then _Tartaros_ happens and he remembers a shining _light._ Remembers the way her hands cup his cheeks, the way her lips feel against his, remembers how she _saves his life_. Maybe then?

Or maybe not.

He remembers Metalicana dying and the guild disbanding and the feeling of loneliness threatening to engulf him once again. And he remembers _her_. Remembers her voice, gentle and soothing and _patient_. Remembers the way she cards her hands through his hair and listens to him vent, listens to him _cry_. Is it love by then?

Maybe.

They join the Council together and he wonders if it happens _then_. If it happens during the late nights spent in the library, flicking through mission reports until the early hours of the morning. If it happens during long carriage journeys with his head on her lap, hands carding through his hair.

Possibly.

He remembers all of that and all the moments in between. All the missions, all the laughter, all the lazy evenings spent sprawled across one of the tables in the guild, surrounded by their friends and thinks _maybe_ it happened _then_.

 

So maybe it’s not one moment. Maybe it’s _all_ of them. 

 

He thinks when it comes to them, that  _falling_ in love is the incorrect phrase.

He doesn’t _fall_ , because falling implies something immediate, something _urgent_ , and their love is nothing like that.

Their love is _slow_ and gradual and months upon months of learning each other and turning their unlikely friendship into something so much _more_ , until he can’t _help_ but realise just what the woman fighting beside him means to him.

He doesn’t expect to fall in love. And he doesn’t.

He _stumbles_.

Stumbles slowly but surely. 

Stumbles into love.


End file.
